


A Death and a Beginning

by Orphicadmium



Category: Homestuck
Genre: A character is dead for most of this, Blood, Blood Drinking, But not sexual in nature., Happy Ending, Hint : it's Karkat., M/M, Slight Nudity, Some very light sexual content but not really, Turning into a Vampire, Vampires, but it's alright, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 23:12:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15496872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orphicadmium/pseuds/Orphicadmium
Summary: "Dave, are you sure about this?""No, but it really isn't my choice to make, it's Karkat's. He knows what living like this is like, and he decided he wanted it. I can't control that, Rose.""You could have chosen not to bite him.""I couldn't,  and you know that. I love him, and if this is what he wants...""You'd do anything to give it to him?"





	A Death and a Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> I just typed this out in a frenzy and I have not edited shit I hope it's understandable.

"Dave, are you sure about this?"  
"No, but it really isn't my choice to make, it's Karkat's. He knows what living like this is like, and he decided he wanted it. I can't control that, Rose."  
"You could have chosen not to bite him."  
"I couldn't, and you know that. I love him, and if this is what he wants..."  
"You'd do anything to give it to him?" Rose's expression softened. She understood what it was like. You don't think she could have refused Kanaya if she asked, either, and you think she knows that, too. You can't see any other reason for her to accept it so quickly.

You did call her at two a.m. to ask her to bring over a bag of blood. She probably thought you had run out. In reality, you just wantes her there while you waited for Karkat to wake up.

Speaking of Karkat, you glanced over at him. He was still laying completely still in bed, no breath or pulse. You couldn't hear his hearbeat, and that worried you. You looked away.

The transformation would take a couple of hours. It would be still a few more hours until you got confirmation that it had worked, and Karkat would wake up. If he woke up.

You had no clue what you would do if he never woke up. You really didn't want to think about it.

Rose pulled out a book from her bag and slumped in her chair. She was tense, even of she was trying to hide it. It was in the lenght of her shoulders, in the curve of her neck. You know your sister well enough to read her. 

 

The room was too quiet. The pale yellow walls that had seen better days, the worn wooden furniture, the ragged blanket, stained with Karkat's blood, it was all too much. It all felt like it was trying to look as lived in as possible, taunting you with the possibility that their owner would just... never wake up. Would never read through all of the books in the bookshelf again, would never laugh so hard it rebertebrated around the house, would never clean everything up like a maniac during a fit of insomnia.

Karkat was the best thing that had ever happened to you. He made you happy, he understood, always. He knew you, and you knew him in return. Living withouth him, and being the reason he wasn't around anymore? You couldn't bear to imagine it. It was far too awful a reality.

To distract yourself, you looked back at Karkat. His dark skin, covered in freckles, looked ashen, almost grey with death. He was thin, so thin, you could see his bones poking out from underneath the skin. His once wild, beautiful mane of hair was now non-existent. He'd shaved it all off once the drugs made it thin out too much. 

It'd hurt him, having to do that. He had always complained so much about his hair, how it never laid flat and how it was uncombable, but you could see the pain in his eyes as he held the electric razor up to his head, when he asked you to help him with the back. He had fought so hard, and it felt like a defeat to him.

Karkat had been fighting for almost three years now, but these last few months the Cancer had attacked with a vengeance. He had lost too much weight too fast. It became harder for him to move, more painful. He couldn't walk across town to the bookstore anymore, when once he could run the entire way, laughing. You hated seeing him hurting so much, you hated the defeat in his posture, the tiredness that permeated all of his actions now.

Then, one day, while you both were cuddling, enjoying the time you had left, Karkat asked you to turn him. You had toyed with the idea before, toyed with asking him (begging him) to let you do it, but you never did, because you didn't want to make him go through the transformation, didn't want him to endure the tribulations of being a vampire.

But this was different. Karkat had asked you to turn him. You knew you couldn't say no, not when the alternative was him dying. 

You couldn't say no to him.

You had both talked long into the night about the consequences of him turning. He still wanted it, even after knowing how hard his life would be if he did.

And so, you ended up here, in your guest bedroom, kissing your husband before asking, one last time, if he was sure. Katkat rolled his eyes and responded in earnest "Yes, you fuckbit, I am absolutely fucking sure, now feel free to bite me and pump weird Vampire juice into me- Dave Strider put those eyebrows down or I will divorce you-" 

You'd shut him up with another kiss, softer this time. Karkat wrapped his arms around you letting out a pleases sound, and you smiled against his lips. You slid your hand down his neck, pulling at the collar of his shirt to expose the small scars from where you'd drunk before. You trailed small kisses down his jaw, down to the place where his neck met his shoulder. Karkat brought his hands up to your hair, pulling at it slightly. You sucked at his skin, knowing it might be the last time you would be able to do this, trying to make this as pleasant as possible because of what came next.

Once you felt the skin under your tounge was tender enough, when Karkat was moaning just the smallest bit, you coaxed your fangs out and bit deep into the skin, down to the muscle. Karkat tensed at that. You didn't bite so far when you fed from him. You drank from him more than you ever had, more than was safe.

The knife you held in your left hand clinked once against you wedding ring, cold and mocking, as you plunged it straight into Karkat's heart.

He gasped once in shock, and you let loose a dose of poison strong enough to turn him. He pulled at your hair, before letting it go completely. You only stoped when he slumped against you, completely limp. He wasn't breathing anymore, what remained of his blood squelching between your fingers as you pulled out the knife.

You looked at your hand, your ring, covered in bright, bright red, and you dropped the knife to the floor with a clang. You hated that you wanted to lick your hand, lick his wound for as much blood as you could get from it, not letting any go to waste. You hated you wanted to sink your teeth into your husband's body, and drink whatever was left. And, most of all, you hated yourself for causing Karkat pain.

You hugged his body to your chest, cuddling him as you'd done on the night a few days ago, and you cried. You cried, and even though logically you knew he would wake up, you still blamed yourself for how he was still amd lifeless now. You had been the one to kill him, kill Karkat, kill your husband, whom you'd swore to protect on that sunny summer day almost a whole year before.

And so, you cried for a while, until your eyes were dry, red, and stinging, your face covered in blood from where you had used your right hand to wipe away the tears.

After you were done crying, you set to work. You laid Karkat down on the guest bed, and used the ragged blanket to clean him up as well as you could, to wipe down your hand and your ring. When you removed as much blood as was possible, you had pulled up a chair, sat down, and called Rose.

And thus here you were, sitting next to Rose, waiting for Karkat to wake up. You don't remember reaching out to grab his hand, holding it between both of yours, as if it were a lifeline.

After a while, after however many hours you and Rose sat vigil next to Karkat, the sun started to rise on the horizon. It was visible through the window over his head, beautiful, painting the sky orange and purple and lilac and red, the type he loved watching.

And as the sun's rays hit him, his eyes fluttered once, twice. You tightenedbyour hold on his hand, and as Karkat's eyes slammed open, a bright, beautiful red, he woke up.

It was instantanious. One minute he was laying still, dead, and the next he was up, hissing and gurgling, and lunging towards Rose. However, you were faster.

You wrapped your arms aroud him, trapping him, and turned him around to push his face into the crook of your neck. He struggled, but he was still weak.

"GET THE BLOOD!"

Rose didn't need twlling twice. She launched herself actoss the room, opening the door and racing out to get to the kitchen, and the fridge full of blood.

In the mean time, Karkat dug his fangs into your shoulder, tearing at it, desperate for blood. It hurt like a bitch, and you made a mental note to teach him how to use his numbing poison, for the sake of whichever one of your poor human friends volunteered to get drunk from.

A few moments later, Rose was back, pulling at Karkat's head to push the blood bag in his mouth.

You let him go, and watched as he drained the bag in less than ten seconds, as the sanity slowly returned to his eyes.

He dropped the bag in slight disgust, and finally, finally, your Karkat looked aroundbefore focusing on you.

"Daveohmygodwhathappenedfuckyou'rehurt!" 

He was by your side in an instant, fuzzing over the blood on your shirt and the wound on your shoulder. You just laughed, and pulled him tight to you, hugging him as if you were about to loose him.

"Don't worry about it, love. Most of the blood is yours."

Realization lit up in his eyes. His hand flew to his chest, lookng for the wound that had taken his life, but it wasn't there anymore.

"It worked?"  
"Fuck yeah, it worked!"

Karkat broke into a smile, and hugged you back just as hard. He seemed to remember your shoulder after a second, and he pulled back, worried again.

"What happened to your shoulder?"  
"It was from your first bloodrage when you woke up. Doesn't even hurt, really."  
"I'm so sorry, Dave. Fuck, I'm sorry."  
"Don't be, youre here now, and that's worth so much more than a few messy bites."

He huffed, guilt mostly gone.  
"What-fucking-ever, let's get you cleaned up." Rose had left the room at some point, likely to give you both some privacy, and you made a mental note to thank her for putting up with your bullshit.

You dragged Karkat past your bedroom, straight to the master bathroom. He made you sit on the touled as he cleaned your wound.

The shower you both took was long and calm, sprinkled with small signs of affection. Karkat helped you take off your clothes, you kissed him and he turned the water on, you both helped each other get rid of all of the blood with soft caresses. You only left the bathroom once the hot water ran out, and Karkat discovered being coldblooded did not make one amenable to the cold. 

You helped him dry off, running your hands down his body in a way that was much more than sensual. It was less lust, and more the pure kind of love that led you to see every inch of him as a masterpiece. He was beautiful, and you made sure to tell him that as much as you could. He laughed, and responded by saying how much he loved you. 

This... this was nice. It was living without having to dread the death that had been threathening your relationship before, the fear and uncertainty. It was the sense that everything was going to turn out alright, as you watched Karkat drink his second bag of blood, that night, this time much more slowly. It was being content as you held him that night, whispering sweet nothings to each other. It was the happiness when, a few days later, a baffled doctor announced his stage four cancer had miraculously dissapeared over the span of a week. It was the feeling of freedom when you stepped out of the hospital's cancer center for the last time, and Karkat pulled you down into a passionate kiss. It was the knowing both of you would be together forever now, neither doomed to a tragically short lifespan. It was the peaceful kind of love you both lounged around in during lazy, rainy afternoons and deep into the night.

It was nice. Aslong as Karkat was at your side, you could learn to live like this.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave a coment if you notice any typos, like I said, this is completely unedited.
> 
> Many thanks to the wonderful people over on the Karkat Thirst server! Please join! https://discord.gg/WFdXagm


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